Integration considerations for Microsoft SharePoint
IBM® BPM supports ECM integration with Microsoft SharePoint.
When you define the ECM server properties for a Microsoft SharePoint server, the default CMIS web service context path is "/_vti_bin/cmis/soap". Information about specifying the context path is found in the topic "Accessing the SharePoint CMIS provider from IBM BPM." You can contact your Microsoft SharePoint administrator for complete connection information.
Other integration considerations for Microsoft SharePoint are described in the following sections:
- Setup
- CMIS capabilities
- Deviations from the CMIS standard
- Document name
- Compatibility with folders in processes
- Time zone of DateTime property values
- Reference
Setup
Your Microsoft SharePoint installation may use a URL convention for the CMIS web service endpoint that is not expected by IBM BPM. See the topic "Accessing the SharePoint CMIS provider from IBM BPM" for information on how to establish the addressability of the CMIS web service for IBM BPM.
CMIS capabilities
Microsoft SharePoint supports the optional CMIS capabilities that are described in the following table:
| CMIS Capability | Microsoft SharePoint | BPM Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| ACL | manage | Not applicable |
| AllVersionsSearchable | false | A search will only be applied to the latest (major) version of a document |
| Changes | objectidsonly | Not applicable |
| ContentStreamUpdatability | anytime | |
| GetDescendants | false | Not applicable |
| GetFolderTree | true | |
| Join | none | Queries cannot include any JOIN clauses |
| Multifiling | false | Documents can only reside in one folder |
| PWCSearchable | true | |
| PWCUpdatable | true | |
| Query | bothseparate | |
| Renditions | none | Not applicable |
| Unfiling | false | Documents are always filed in a folder |
| VersionSpecificFiling | false |
Deviations from the CMIS standard
Microsoft SharePoint deviates from the OASIS CMIS standard in the following ways:
- When a document is being created, the content of the document must be provided.
- The IN and LIKE operators are not supported for WHERE clauses in queries.
Document name
Microsoft SharePoint does not allow you to store a separate document name and file name for its content. When you create a document, Microsoft SharePoint automatically takes your provided document name and adds the file extension from the content file name. This concatenated name is then used as the document name. For example, if your content has a file name Claim.pdf and
your value for the document name is Claim 2016-123, then Microsoft SharePoint stores the document by using the Claim
2016-123.pdf name.
When you check in a document that uses a Content Integration step in a service, you cannot provide both a new name and a file name for the content. A request with both names fails. Instead, either set the file name on the content or the document name.
When you create or update a document that uses the Document Explorer, Document List or Heritage Document List coach views, the document name is automatically calculated based on the previous description.
Compatibility with folders in processes
Microsoft SharePoint does not
allow you to perform queries with the cmis:objectId and cmis:versionSeriesId in
the WHERE clause. Documents and folders referenced from these systems
are not returned with accurate information in a Get children operation
against the BPM managed store.
See References to external ECM systems from a BPM folder.
Time zone of DateTime property values
The CMIS responses from Microsoft SharePoint contain DateTime values that are specified in coordinated universal time (UTC), but without any time zone information. By default, IBM Business Automation Workflow will interpret these values using its own default time zone. This can lead to incorrect values, such as when using content integration tasks in a service flow or when using the Document Explorer and Document List coach views in a human service. To correct this behavior, you can add or update the ecm-server-default-timezone setting in the 100Custom.xml files. For example, when a CMIS response contains DateTime values without any time zone, you can use the setting to configure IBM Business Automation Workflow to assume the UTC time zone. For more information about using the ecm-server-default-timezone setting, see the topic Setting default time zones for ECM servers.
Reference
For information about the Microsoft SharePoint implementation of the OASIS CMIS standard, see the Microsoft topic Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) connector overview (SharePoint Server 2010).